Rafael "Chi Chi" Quintero Ibaria (September 16, 1940 – October 1, 2006) was a

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian intelligence agency, foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gat ...

operative.

Biography

Quintero was born in Camagüey, Cuba on September 16, 1940. In the 1950s, he joined the resistance movement against Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista. A few days prior to the Cuban Revolution he joined

Fidel Castro Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (; ; 13 August 1926 – 25 November 2016) was a Cuban revolutionary and politician who was the leader of Cuba from 1959 to 2008, serving as the prime minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976 and president from 1976 to 200 ...

's group in the Sierra Maestra. After becoming dissatisfied with the Castro regime, he joined

Manuel Artime Manuel Francisco Artime Buesa, M.D. (29 January 1932 – 18 November 1977) was a Cuban-American who at one time was a member of the rebel army of Fidel Castro but later was the political leader of Brigade 2506 land forces in the abortive Bay of Pi ...

against Castro. Artime's group was supported by Frank Sturgis and the

as related by

Fabian Escalante Fabian may refer to: People * Fabian (name), including a list of people with the given name or surname * Pope Fabian (died 250), Catholic saint * Fabian Forte (born 1943), 1950s American teen idol, singer and actor, known by the mononym Fabia ...

in ''CIA Covert Operations: 1959 - 1962''. Sturgis flew a

plane over Havana, dropping thousands of pamphlets urging the Cuban people to overthrow the Castro regime on October 21, 1959, as part of Artime's operations. About December 1959, Manuel Artime left Cuba with a hundred thousand pesos when nothing happened. Quintero moved to the United States the next month. On June 5, 1960, The Movement for the Recovery of the Revolution or (MRR) was created by

Tony Varona Manuel Antonio de Varona y Loredo (November 25, 1908 in Camagüey, Cuba – October 29, 1992 in Miami, Florida, United States) was a Cuban lawyer and politician. Career Varona is 7th Prime Minister of Cuba in 1948–1950, and served as preside ...

, Aureliano Arango, José Miró Cardona and Quintero. Around the same time, Quintero became a member of

Operation 40 Operation 40 was the code name for a Central Intelligence Agency-sponsored counterintelligence group composed of Cuban exiles. The group was formed to seize control of the Cuban government after the Bay of Pigs Invasion. Operation 40 continued t ...

along with other anti-Castro Cubans. In 1961 Quintero secretly re-entered Cuba and was arrested just before the Bay of Pigs Invasion, was released and returned to the U.S. Rafael Quintero served as deputy leader of MRR under Artime in 1962. Manuel Artime got money from the CIA through

Theodore Shackley Theodore George "Ted" Shackley, Jr. (July 16, 1927 – December 9, 2002) was an American CIA officer involved in many important and controversial CIA operations during the 1960s and 1970s. He is one of the most decorated CIA officers. Due to his ...

in 1963. Artime, Quintero and Félix Rodríguez moved to Nicaragua creating an army of 300 men and obtained weapons, supplies and boats to invade Cuba. Quintero died in

Baltimore, Maryland Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic, and the 30th most populous city in the United States with a population of 585,708 in 2020. Baltimore was ...

after a history of kidney failure.

References

The Independent - Rafael (Chi Chi) Quintero obit
{{DEFAULTSORT:Quintero, Rafael 1940 births 2006 deaths American anti-communists American spies Cuban anti-communists Cuban emigrants to the United States Iran–Contra affair People of the Central Intelligence Agency

Biography

Further reading

References